"No More Excuses"

Have you seen the King’s Speech? It’s actually a great movie. It won four Oscars. Best picture, best actor, best director and best original screen play. Unfortunately it’s rated R, but that is only for one extended expression of expletives. Never the less I would still recommend it.

It’s based on a the story of King George VI, who was King during one of the most critical times in all of England’s existence. Bertie, as he was affectionately known before he became King, was never supposed to become the king. His older brother Edward was supposed to become King, but after his scandalous abdication from the throne because he married a divorced Hollywood starlet, “Bertie” was tapped to succeed his father King George the V.

The problem was “Bertie” had a terrible speech impediment,. He stuttered. So much so that it threatened not only his confidence but it threatened to undermine the entire confidence of the entire nation as well. Consequently his wife, arranged for her husband to see an eccentric speech therapist, Lionel Logue. After a rough start the two form an unbreakable bond that enables him, the King, to overcome his stuttering and find his “voice”, a “voice” that inspires his people and unites them in battle.

Well, in the Bible we have a story of someone who struggles with a very similar speech impediment and inferiority complex and yet God calls him at a very critical point in his nations history to lead his people. And yet he argues with God, offering him nothing but excuses for why he can’t do what God wants him to do.

His name is Moses. He is another one of the Old Testament Super Heros we’ve been looking at this Summer at Journey. The last time we saw him he was suffering from anything but an inferiority complex. His problem in the beginning was that he was too confident. He knew that God had a purpose for his life and so he set out to fulfill it. Consequently then one day while visiting “his” people he saw one of the Egyptians beating his fellow Hebrew and so he killed him, Exodus 2:11-12.

11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

He thought that this was God’s calling for his life and it was, but it wasn’t God’s timing. He imagined that “his” people, the children of Israel would rally around and follow him. But that’s not what happened. Instead they turned on him. Consequently then he was forced to flee for his life, Exodus 2:13-15.

13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.

Moses then spends forty years in the wilderness, far from the comforts of the palace and the promise that one day he would become a great leader. But suddenly and almost without notice God shows up to Moses. He shows up to him in the midst of a burning bush and says, “I have seen the suffering of the children of Israel and now is the time I want you to go and rescue them,” Exodus 3:9-10.

9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

You would think then that Moses, when he heard this would have been thrilled. I can finally do what I was made to do, but that’s not what happens. Rather than respond to God in obedience he responds to God with an plethora of excuses. Over the next several posts we’ll look at Moses' excuses for not obeying God. I think you will be amazed because they look at lot like ours. (next time, excuse number 1)